It’ll be interesting in the future when we look back and see how the dithering of the Bushies led to Russia becoming some kind of threat again.
President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he had ordered the military to resume regular long-range flights of strategic bombers, a show of Russia’s resurgent military power amid a chill in relations with Washington.
I see no evidence that Russia is any kind of a “threat” to anyone in the world. They are just taking normal, rational, prudent measures to defend themselves from a nation that is clearly intent on conquering and dominating the world. Don’t believe the American propaganda. It’s the US that’s the threat to global security. And it’s good that there are people like Putin that recognize that and are doing something about it.
Look, dave, I have some sympathy for what you’re saying, but Putin’s a scary mofo, an ex-KGB guy who seems increasingly enamored of the Good Old Days when the Soviet power structure did what it pleased and prepared for the day it would “bury” us. There’s evidence that dissidents are being locked in mental hospitals again. There are suspicious links between the government and recently dead journalists and ex-spies.
ahh, back in the days of George the Elder, when there were promises of a kindler, gentler, ice cream
Spider, well I hear what you’re saying. But I see no real “evidence” that Putin is enamored of the “good old days” or that he wants to “bury us”. I think that’s just a projection of people who don’t want to deal with the present so they resort to outdated images from the past. And I think that Putin, of all people, is concerned only with the present, and securing his country’s security from what is a clear threat. He strikes me as a total realist, the last kind of person who would be swayed by sentiment about restoring Russian “glory” or something like that.
And it is certainly not his imagination that the US has plans to put nuclear missiles on the Russian border. Is that a fantasy? No, it’s quite real, and it is a genuine threat whose clear aim is to contain Russia, and probably eventually to gain control over its oil and gas. And it’s also quite real that this doesn’t seem to bother anyone else, not in the EU, and certainly no American, Democratic or Republican, which indicates that it is not a Bush problem, but an American one that will continue after Bush leaves office.
“There’s evidence that dissidents are being locked in mental hospitals again. There are suspicious links between the government and recently dead journalists and ex-spies.”
I hate to bring this to your attention but the US isn’t exactly kind to dissidents either these days. And the US has definitely been carrying out assassinations of journalists in Iraq and other places. A hell of a lot more than the Russians have killed. If you’re more worried about Russia than you are about the US then you haven’t been paying attention. The US currently has a global gulag that is much larger than any the Soviet Union ever had, and which is much more violent and abusive. I won’t waste your time with a litany of American crimes, but I think we all know that they’re just as bad or worse than anything any other country has done.
I could be wrong, I don’t claim to have all the answers. But I think Putin realizes exactly the kind of global threat that the US represents and is taking measures to counteract it. To me, him sending out the bombers feels like in the old western movies when you hear the cavalry charge. Hooray! Someone with the guts to stand up to the bad guys.
Dave, I’m well aware of our own crimes and abuses. And I’m certainly not more worried about Russia’s than our own; far from it…after all, I have to live here too.
But it sounds like you’re using our crimes as an excuse to dismiss anything Russia is doing, because whatever it does it does to show it has the balls to stand up to our current state of power madness. I’m glad if there’s a roadblock in place to keep us from turning into empire-builders, but I don’t like the idea that said opponent is prone to the same ethical failures as we are, even if “they do it less.”
Well, we can’t have a Gulag gap, now can we? Russia’s just trying to catch up to us again.